What to do when a sick employee doesn't respond to communications, and has important data?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

There is an employee I have been working with that told me she is sick a week ago. Yesterday, I tried to contact her through the usual channels and she did not respond. Yesterday she told me that she will call me back through SMS, she did not.

She holds some very important data to the team and I have no idea how to get them back. Should I keep calling her? Try a different number? Or something else?

I do not have any signals that the employee was unhappy, so I am not sure what happened, really.

manpreet 2 years ago

She is not "ghosting" you if she is on sick leave.

The whole point of "sick leave" is that the person is not feeling well and cannot work. She might be resting, she might be out for doctors appointments or physical therapy, she might have taken prescription medicine that makes her drowsy and forgetful, she might lie down in a dark room with piercing headaches that worsen when looking at a light source or computer screen, to make a long story short: she is not fit to work. So don't expect her to do more than the legal minimum, which in my state is notify their employer (which she did), present documentation (which you don't seem to be concerned about, so I guess it's fine) and doing everything in her power to get well soon (which, one could argue, you are actively hindering).

If she has important information that is only in her head and not on file somewhere accessible, that is not her problem, that is your problem as an organisation. Spend the time to improve your processes that this does not happen again. Because she or someone else will get sick again.

Check with your HR what is allowed in your state. Then chose the most unintrusive way to contact her. Maybe email, because that will not sound any bells and does not require immediate attention.

She is not "ghosting" you if she is on sick leave.

The whole point of "sick leave" is that the person is not feeling well and cannot work. She might be resting, she might be out for doctors appointments or physical therapy, she might have taken prescription medicine that makes her drowsy and forgetful, she might lie down in a dark room with piercing headaches that worsen when looking at a light source or computer screen, to make a long story short: she is not fit to work. So don't expect her to do more than the legal minimum, which in my state is notify their employer (which she did), present documentation (which you don't seem to be concerned about, so I guess it's fine) and doing everything in her power to get well soon (which, one could argue, you are actively hindering).

If she has important information that is only in her head and not on file somewhere accessible, that is not her problem, that is your problem as an organisation. Spend the time to improve your processes that this does not happen again. Because she or someone else will get sick again.

Check with your HR what is allowed in your state. Then chose the most unintrusive way to contact her. Maybe email, because that will not sound any bells and does not require immediate attention.